Car goes in Limp Mode
 

I have a 1994 SL500 Mercedes. Sporadically my ASR light will come on and my engine shuts down to limp mode when driving on the road. This happens at freeway speeds as well as 25-40 MPH. At that point I have to shut my engine off and restart. At that my car runs normal again. This problem only seems to happen in warm weather (above 70-75 degrees). In temperatures like this my car also wants to stall when I am at idle speed like when pulling into the garage and I also need to step on the accelerator when trying to start the car at these temperatures. Does anyone have any suggestions to what is the problem. I have been told that it is possibly the Throttle Body Acuator.
:confused:

limp mode
 

The easiest way to find out what is going on is to have M/B pull & read the error codes from the car's computer. Usually they can tell exactly what is wrong.

Could be the thottle actuator but could also be some other things, many of which are a lot cheaper than a throttle actuator. Try a search (above) for ASR light and limp home and you will find lots of information. Also build the code reader and learn how to read the fault codes - they will provide valuable clues. You shouldn't get a new throttle actuator until you've done some more diagnosis and eliminated some less expensive potential causes.

SAME PROBLEM- EASY FIX (for me)
 

I have the EXACT same problem with my 94 SL500. After having a State inspection done (which by the way , the car went into limp mode while inspector test driving it), I was told that my gas cap didn't pass inspection. So right after I got home, I borrowed the gas cap of my 86 560SL and just for kicks, see if it has something to do with the limp mode activation. SURE enough!! The gas cap has Everything to do with it! So if you haven't changed your gas cap lately, this cheap item fixed my limp mode issues....... for now!

Happy Motoring

Not to rain on your parade but that sounds like a random event to me - I'll bet it comes back.

i bet it doesn't:wacky:

It is SOOOO easy to build a code checker,,, simply a resistor, LED and a push button,,, unless you want to get fancy and put it in a box,,,

I'd follow deanyel suggestion . . read the stored DTCs to give you a direction to persue. Read MENU#24 on my pages re the 'progression' of a bad ETA.

Actually there's really no direct codes for this failure . . so it's one of the tougher problems to 'diagnose'. There's a number of parts in the ETA chain that can cause the problem as deanyel says.

The '94 cars have no direct 'DTC' for a bad gas-cap. And it won't effect a going-bad ETA or an associated part. It will come back!

On my 87, 260E if this were to happen, I would check the coolant temparature sensor, also called the fuel injection temperature sensor. This part informs the computer abot engine's temp and the computer can then adjust its mixture accordingly.

Wasn't this model also built with defective harnesses?

There is an awful lot of info on this type of thing - Jim's site will shed alot of light on this. (be prepared to spend some money)